ABSTRACT
The whole valley of the middle Niger, from Djenné in the west to the borders of Nigeria in the east; from the oases of the Sahara in the north into Dahomey in the south-east, an area comprises the ancient kingdom of Songhai under the reign of the famous Askia dynasty. SONGHAI is the language of commerce throughout most of this area, and is spoken as a second language by many speakers of other languages. There is, however, practically no vernacular literature. The three dialects of the SONGHAI Cluster are very closely interrelated and are mutually intelligible; they are, however, recognized as separate, and the dialects and their speakers are known by different names. SONGHAI is unrelated to any other known language or Language Group. When an Adjective follows the Noun, the Suffix is attached to the Adjective and not to the Noun.
